ROOTS OF SPIRITUALITY

My idea of why so many people believe in invisible supernatural entities is fear of the unknown; death being the major factor. This has been inherited in the mind since mankind existed, in fact, even before that. Spirituality has developed in the evolution of thought along with hate, love, jealousy and all other emotions.

Some of the earliest human burial sites discovered in Europe are those of Neanderthals, from 30,000 to 200,000 years ago. In the graves were found food, clothing, decorative shells, weapons, stone tools, plants, flowers, and bodily remains often covered with a red pigment. The people who buried their loved ones surely thought that they would need nourishment, clothing, tools and weapons to survive in another existence.

Louis Leaky, the noted anthropologist, said that the nature of the graves indicated that the Neanderthals displayed a keen self-awareness and a concern for the human spirit. Another anthropologist F. Clark Howell noted that all the evidence in these discoveries suggests that the Neanderthals believed in a life after death.

Going back even further in the evolution of man some neurologists and other scientists believe primates are capable of having spiritual experiences similar to humans.

Researchers acknowledge that spiritual experiences originate within primitive parts of the human brain, structures shared by animals. Kevin Nelson, a professor of neurology at the University of Kentucky, has analyzed the processes of spiritual sensation for over three decades.

Professor Nelson, author of the book 'The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain,”says: "Since only humans are capable of language that can communicate the richness of spiritual experience, it is unlikely we will ever know with certainty what an animal subjectively experiences. Despite this limitation, it is still reasonable to conclude that since the most primitive areas of our brain happen to be the spiritual, then we can expect that animals are also capable of spiritual experiences,"

This is food for thought and if true is is not unreasonable to accept that the reason that the faithful have no rationale or common sense when it comes to believing in irrational ideas.